The present invention relates to improved processes for reacting alkyl epoxides with glycols to form alkanes vicinally substituted with hydroxy and alkyl hydroxy alkoxylate groups.
It is known that alkanes (particularly those of 10 to 18 carbon chain length) vicinally substituted with hydroxy and alkyl hydroxy alkoxylate groups possess surfactant properties and are useful in a variety of applications such as ingredients for detergent formulations.
Methods of preparing such vicinally substituted compounds by the reaction of a glycol with an alkyl epoxide in the presence of an acidic catalyst are known to those skilled in the art. R. E. Parker and N. S. Issacs, Chem. Rev. p. 741 (1959) point out that the vast majority of epoxide reactions have been studied in solution and that almost all the reactions involve the opening of the epoxide ring and the addition of a molecule of reagent. It is noted that the ring-opening reactions of epoxides take place by ionic mechanisms and, since the bond which is broken is the highly polar carbon-oxygen bond, that the reactions are generally carried on in polar solvents.
Although reactions of the type described above readily produce the desired product, significant amounts of undesired by-products are often formed. Thus, improved reactions in which the formation of undesired by-products are minimized are desired by those skilled in the art.